1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electrostatic image developing toner for pressure fixing, a production method of the same, an electrostatic image developer, an image forming method and an image forming apparatus.
2. Related Art
In the case where a polymer having randomly linked monomer chains, such as addition-polymerizable resin or polycondensation resin, is used as the binder resin of a toner, the fixing is promoted mainly by heating rather than by pressure and therefore, as regards the reduction in energy necessary for fixing in an electrophotographic system and the like, improvement with great deviation from the trend is not allowed to proceed. Also, there is not a simple fixing unit for realizing high-speed fixing in using a cardboard, which is important so as to cope with the market of printing by an electrophotographic system.
In order to realize a high-quality image at a high speed with a simple fixing unit by reducing the energy necessary for fixing and improving uneven gloss that is readily generated in high-speed fixing of a cardboard by heat fixing, promotion of plasticization by the pressure of toner is considered to be effective, but it is difficult in conventional polymerization to precisely design a resin structure enabling promotion of plasticization by pressure.
On the other hand, a certain combination using polymers that are hard (high glass transition temperature (Tg)) and soft (low Tg), respectively, at ordinary temperature exhibits flowability under pressure at not higher than the melting point of those polymers and therefore, can be pressure-formed at a temperature not higher than the melting point. A polymer material having such a property is called a baroplastic.